Just Passing Through
by Ultrawoman
Summary: Sequel to 'An Easy Out Clause'. One-Shot. Futurefic. Eliot & Parker must face Hardison years after the P/H wedding that never was... E/P, H/OFC, mentions N/S


**A/N: So, some people asked me for a sequel to An Easy Out Clause, specifically with Eliot & Parker seeing Hardison again a few years after the non-wedding. I hope this lives up to expectations!**

_**(Disclaimer: Characters from Leverage belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and other important people that aren't me.)**_

Just Passing Through

Eliot Spencer was always very aware. It served him well and was often bad news for his enemies, but by the same token it could be very helpful to others who meant him no harm. Jogging around the park ought to be nothing more than a fitness exercise, and yet there was already so much more to it than that. Eliot's excellent reflexes meant that a surprise extra factor to the day did not go as badly as it might've if he were less aware.

The child was in his path so fast, anyone else might've run right into or even over the boy of no more than three or four. Thankfully, Eliot was alert and ready for anything, including children getting in his way apparently. He pulled up sharply to one side of the kid, and the boy looked terribly startled before landing with a bump on his rear. To his credit, he didn't bawl or even make a sound at all, just sat there staring up at the hitter with wide brown eyes.

"What you doin' over here, little man?" he asked the boy.

Eliot immediately looked up and around for any parent or guardian that ought to be watching him, mindful that even helping the child to his feet might get him into trouble with a protective mother. After all, he could be anybody.

"Jayden! Bring yo ass back... here" the sentence called from a man behind Eliot became disjointed as the hitter turned around and realised who was coming for the child that had crossed his path.

"Sorry, Daddy" said the little boy as he scrambled to his feet, though his father barely heard him then.

"Well, I'll be damned" he said with an odd kind of smile, "If it ain't Eliot Spencer"

"Hardison" he nodded in response, watching as the hacker moved to pick up his little boy and sat him on his hip.

"You, don't ever run away from us again, you got that, man?" he said, not quite as stern as perhaps he should've been with the boy, but he still seemed to understand.

"Sorry, Daddy" he repeated dutifully, looking appropriately shame-faced for his behaviour.

Honestly, Eliot was just kind of astounded by the sight of first his old hacker friend and second the child in his arms that was calling him Daddy. Still, if this was for real, it was very cool. Hardison didn't seem mad at him anymore, though he must have been years ago when Eliot took Parker away from the wedding that would've made her Mrs Alec Hardison. If the guy had found happiness with some other woman and even children, things couldn't really be better.

As Jayden was sent back to his mother who was apparently not sat so very far away on a picnic blanket, Eliot looked from the boy to his one time team mate.

"So, is he...?" he began to ask.

"Really my kid?" Hardison guessed with a grin, "Yeah, he my boy. Genuine Hardison 2.0"

"That's cool, man, it really is" he nodded, finding a smile of his own, "You always wanted a family..."

Things got awkward then as he realised going any further with that train of thought would mean bringing up Parker. That was one topic sure to blow this conversation out of the water before it had barely begun.

"It's been too long, El" said Hardison with a wistful look, "Gotta be, what? Six years?"

"Yeah, just over" Eliot considered, "I guess you're 'retired' now?" he checked, not quite able to believe that a guy like him would be able to put himself in the line of fire when he had a woman and child in his life like this.

"Pretty much" the hacker agreed, nodding his head, "I mean, I work a little magic here an' there, you know how it is" he shrugged, "but after Nate and Sophie got hitched and ditched, well, I started out thinking I'd put my own crew together, til I met Leticia" he smiled wide as he waved across the park at the woman that Eliot could tell was a looker even at this range.

"Does she know?" he asked, not needing to explain for Hardison to understand what he meant.

"Yeah, she one of us, bro" he explained with a grin that wouldn't shift, "No disrespect to Sophie, man, but 'Tisha was the best grifter I ever met my whole life, up until she got pregnant with Jayden" he told the hitter, "Now we married and happy and... man, I thought the thrill of the con was all I needed, but this a whole other world" he admitted.

Eliot smiled because he couldn't help himself. He had worried about Hardison after he helped Parker ditch the guy at the alter. Neither of them ever wanted to hurt the hacker who they cared for like family, but the little thief could not be happy married and settled like that. She had to be herself, and Eliot wanted to help her do that, he still did even now.

"Hey" her voice behind him was a shock, for once, and he barely had time to turn around before she crashed her lips to his in a brief kiss, "I totally just... Hardison?" Parker reacted with surprise as she glanced from Eliot to the hacker she hadn't seen in years.

"Hey, mama" he smiled at the sight of her, his eyes taking in her form in jogging gear almost matching the hitter's own, "You ain't got no less beautiful since the last time I saw you"

Parker floundered for an answer, for anything to say or do. She had thought about Hardison a lot over the years, wondered how he was doing, if he still loved her or was still mad at her for running out on him. So far it seemed he and Eliot hadn't gotten into a fight, but that might just be because Hardison didn't want to die.

"I'm sorry for leaving you at the church and not marrying you" she said all in a rush, "Only I didn't want to marry you, because even though you're great, I'm not the wife and mother type, and just because I'm having sex with Eliot now, I totally wasn't doing that then, only after, and that's just different because..."

"Woah, woah, slow down, Parker" the hacker urged her as she spoke so quickly he was sure she was going to turn blue and fall over before long.

Eliot looked every shade of awkward as he shifted next to her. Whether it was her blurting out that they were sleeping together or all the apologies about the wedding that had him feeling uncomfortable, no-one could tell. Still, Hardison made sure to put both his old friends at ease then.

"Look, ya'll don't need to be freakin' out over my feelings, okay?" he told them easily, "I gotta say, when it happened, I was mad, obviously" he explained, "I mean, I kept thinking 'why didn't Parker just talk to me about how she was feeling?' and 'why didn't Eliot tell me he thought there was a problem?'" he admitted, "But Nate and Sophie, they were really cool, they made me face up to the fact I kind pushed you into the whole wedding thing, mama" he told her with a sad kind of a smile, "And Eliot, man, I prob'ly wouldn'ta listened to you even if you tried to make me see it"

"I'm still sorry, man" said the hitter seriously, "Last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt, but I couldn't see a way of saving you both..."

"So you saved the most important person" smiled Hardison, looking from hitter to thief, "Trust me, I ain't gonna argue with you on that" he assured him.

It was Hardison who was surprised next as Parker launched herself into his arms and hugged him tight, whispering words of friendship and thanks as she did so. It was a genuine shock, but it didn't stop the hacker hugging back and telling her once again that everything was cool.

"I don't wanna break up the reunion but we really oughta move" said Eliot then, "I'm guessing our guy is gonna notice soon that you lifted the goods when you bumped him back there?" he gestured to Parker's pocket where he knew the item would be.

"You guys on a job right now?" asked Hardison with wide eyes.

"It's what we do" shrugged the thief easily, pulling up her hood as she looked around.

"Then you guys go do what you do best" their hacker friend smiled, "And I know you do it best of anybody"

Eliot was smiling too as he accepted the high five Hardison offered, giving two slaps and ending with a fist bump as they always had done so many years ago, as part of Team Leverage.

"See you around, man" he said, almost hopefully, as he started backing down the path, with Parker encouraging him to hurry.

This time Hardison watched his two best friends as they literally ran out of his life, but it was okay. If he could survive the last time, this one would be easy, as he watched their backs disappear from sight. There was a genuine smile on his face as he returned to the picnic blanket where his wife and son waited.

"Friends of yours?" asked Leticia as he sat down and took the cup of orange soda she offered him.

"Yeah, old friends" he nodded his agreement, "But you prob'ly won't see 'em again... they just passing through"

The End


End file.
